Kings & Queens
by Sassassin
Summary: It takes her five days to conquer all of the kingdom. - AU/One-shot


**Tagging: **Nikita, Alex, Birkhoff, Percy, Roan, Kelly, Sonya (she's the talkative girl, oops, spoiler).  
**Ships: **Nalex. (Maybe a little Percy x Roan if I'd allowed my mind to wander.)  
**Rating:** K.

I blame this one on my **cousin**, who's an eight-year-old secret sweetheart disguised as a tough badass, the apple of my eye that's been staying at our house for way too many days this summer already. I also blame **Twitter** because it should go on automatic lock-down when I start posting my AU ideas.

Just something short and sweet (and heartbreaking if you don't miss it between blinking).

* * *

It takes her five days to conquer all of the kingdom.

On **Monday** she is the mysterious new girl, dark eyes framed by coal eyelashes that give nothing away. The cold façade and the lack of speaking travel like hot news across Ivy Hill, and for the first time in her life people swarm around young Nikita Mears like mots to a flame.

She walks straight and it seems as though a crooked smile is perpetually hidden behind two thin lines, and while her hair bounces up and down in two ponytails she is nothing short of menacing.

A lasting first impression sears into the mind of many.

She spends recess sitting on the swing set and ignoring the burning gazes on her back, scuffing her boots into the sand and crushing pb&j sandwiches to dust between her palms.

Percy and Roan take immediate notice but decide she can't possibly be a threat. She is _just a girl_, after all.

**(**Foolish, foolish boys.**)**

On **Tuesday** she doesn't wear a baggy hoodie but a tank top that shows how bony she is, but when she squares her shoulders and puffs out her chest no one dares let a word slip. If anything the vibes of danger that hang around her like an aura only multiply by a tenfold.

Her teacher changes her place from the back of the room to the very front, next to the world's most talkative seven-year-old. Everything she says lands on deaf ears. Nikita focuses on her exercises, aces them all and smiles tight-lipped when miss Kelly crouches next to her and gives her a sticker for making no mistakes.

She becomes to first person to ever set foot on that part of the playgrounds that is Percy and Roan's headquarters. The lanky sixth graders cross their arm across their chest in unison and try to stare her down.

Nikita looks up at them and levels them a cold glare.

They let her stay. They need queens anyway, right?

**(**Stupid, stupid boys.**)**

On **Wednesday** there is a shift in the atmosphere when she walks up to the corner where the school's biggest social rejects reside and plops herself down in the sand between them. She pretends not to see any of the stares when she breaks her cookie in three parts and offers two of them to Alex Udinov, the girl that doesn't speak a word of English, and Seymour Birkhoff, the boy that always carries his calculator with him even out of math class.

The kings of the realm feel a shift in power too when the horror of this unpredictable action fades into admiration, adoration. They demand fear, they have goons wandering the place to enforce the ridiculous rules they set, but nothing seems to work now a reluctant hero seems to have stepped to the plate to overthrow the system that's been for years.

Ten minutes before recess ends Nikita grabs Alex' hand and pulls her up to her feet, dust floating around their feet as they run to the opposite end of the playgrounds, and Nikita almost allows herself to smile gleefully as through Alex' Russian pleas and questions there's also laughter that sounds like music.

For ten blissful minutes Nikita pushes Alex as she sits in the tire swing and that is the spark that ignites a revolution.

**(**Silly, Silly girls.**)**

On **Thursday** Percy and Roan corner her. Dirt sticks to her shoulders because she's been lying in the middle of the sand box with Alex, eyes closed pretending to be at the beach and trying to come up with a way to communicate that doesn't involve words—they like gestures and certain chains of taps and prods against each other's palms.

They say a lot of things. A lot of foolish, stupid things and Nikita smiles. It's not so much a nice thing to see as it is truly terrifying. She peels up the legs of her pants to show scars and bruises. She speaks publicly for the first time.

"I'm not afraid to fight you."

When Percy tries to hit her, he finds himself too slow; she hooks a foot around his ankle and makes him fall. The playgrounds grows contained silent, eyes big and focused on what's happening.

Roan is the first to run. Percy doesn't leave until he has world's biggest bruise ever caused by a second grader.

She needs to go see the principal later but when Caroline, her adoptive mother, promises it won't happen again she goes unpunished.

Before the school day's over she is made the unofficial queen of the school.

**(**Hopeful, hopeful people.**)**

On **Friday** the kingdom is hers. Now when she walks the hallways she smiles. Now when people swarm around her she talks. Now when the girl next to her in class starts talking she speaks back.

She hasn't ever been a truly happy kid but for these children she can try.

There is only one person she truly cares about though and they find each other on top of the high jungle gym. Nikita scrunches up her nose as she tries to remember the pronunciation of the word she asked Caroline to help her look up online when Gary fell asleep on the couch.

When she says _karalyeva_ (queen) in her best attempt at mimicking the accent, Alex' thousand watt smile makes her feel like she can do anything.

So they sit hand-in-hand all through recess and Nikita thinks being queen of a school might not be too hard if she has this one by her side.

**(**Happy, happy queens.**)**


End file.
